It’s been nearly six months since President Donald Trump issued an executive order forming a commission to combat the nation’s opioid crisis — which he described on August 10 as “a national emergency” — and almost two months since the White House panel issued interim recommendations for dealing with the epidemic. But Trump has made a habit of failing to follow-up on his executive orders, and his administration has yet to officially declare the crisis a national emergency. In fact, there’s no evidence that his administration has moved on nearly any of the of the commission’s recommendations.

Now, members of Congress are saying the inaction is costing lives.

In a letter to the president, 51 House Democrats led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., urged the administration to declare a national emergency and act on one critical recommendation: ensuring that naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, gets into the hands of every law enforcement officer in the United States.

The opioid crisis killed over 33,000 Americans in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control, enough to reduce U.S. life expectancy by two and a half months. And as the need for naloxone has grown, so, too, has its price. The cost of Evzio, an naloxone auto-injector similar to the EpiPen, rose from $690 in 2014 to $4,500 today. Other formulations have seen increases, as well. This has led to critical shortages of the drug across the country.

If Trump acts on the naloxone recommendation, he would not only be addressing the opioid crisis but also fulfill a campaign promise to reduce the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. As the House Democrats point out in their letter, formally declaring a national emergency would allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to “negotiate reduced pricing for all governmental units.” These discounts would enable the government to stockpile naloxone and distribute it nationwide. “You have the ability to take immediate action … and make good on your promise to help save the lives of many Americans affected by this national emergency,” they wrote. The White House has yet to comment on the letter.

In Trump’s official response to the opioid commission’s recommendations, he said only that he “instructed his Administration to use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis caused by the opioid epidemic.” Federal agencies have largely not followed through on that request.

About the only progress on opioid policy in the last month has been the announcement of an already existing partnership between the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry to research and generate non-opioid pain medication and additional medication-assisted treatment options. Among the participants in the public-private partnership is perhaps the most culpable drug manufacturer in the opioid crisis: Purdue Pharma, one of several companies sued by multiple states over marketing opioids to doctors and patients without identifying the addictive possibilities.

The White House’s opioid commission itself is fraught with problems. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who chairs the commission, has backed up the president’s “commitment” to declare an emergency, but Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would only call the declaration an “involved process.” Meanwhile, Christie, facing an October 1 deadline for a final commission report, has asked for a month-long extension. Also serving on the commission is Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the beneficiary of an illegal 2013 campaign contribution from Trump.

The Trump administration’s delay in meeting executive order deadlines is no anomaly. As The Intercept has documented, the White House has not kept up with the numerous actions the president has mandated in executive orders and memoranda. Our deadline tracker finds that officials have met deadlines on only 28 of the 69 actions that have been due so far, and several of those tasks were completed behind schedule.

The administration has made even fewer of the actions, most of which comprise reports to the president, public, although some have been leaked to the media. This week, newspapers released a leaked report to the president from the Interior Department recommending to cut back or change the land-use activities on 10 national monuments. Previously the Interior Department had only released an executive summary with no details.

Other news items have alleged political interference with executive order reports. The Department of Health and Human Services constructed a report on the long-term government costs of refugee resettlement to the United States, initially finding that refugees brought in more government revenue than they took out. But internal emails stated that “senior leadership is questioning the assumptions” in the report, and HHS’s calculations never made it into the final version, which has not been formally released, even though the executive order ordering the report said it would be created “to further ensure transparency for the American people.”

A State Department official told The Intercept that the two refugee cost studies, one on long-term costs and another on relative costs of refugees in their countries of first asylum, “will be submitted in the coming weeks.” They were due September 2. “We are not able to characterize the reports before they are finished,” the official said.

Another immigration-related report on legal immigration status, also due September 2, was confirmed “not yet finalized” by the Department of Homeland Security’s Joanne Talbot.

The administration has grown less responsive over time to requests to confirm delivery of presidential reports. The Commerce Department has yet to show evidence that it has met seven separate Trump deadlines, including actions that were supposed to be reported in the Federal Register. A report on manufacturing regulations, termed imminent in June, has not been confirmed, nor has a planned report on American pipelines.

The information that the White House has made public has not told us a whole lot. For example, the Council on Environmental Quality published its initial list of actions on “modernizing” the environmental review process. But the report, mandated by executive order, includes only five bullet points, three of which say the council will coordinate with other agencies on next steps.

Even White House advisers have grown tired of the lack of follow-up. Several of Trump’s top advisers resigned in late August, citing insufficient attention to cybersecurity threats, which the president had promised to tackle in an executive order that included 17 separate deadlines.

In the case of the opioid epidemic, however, as the House Democrats pointed out, lives are hanging in the balance, and that’s all the more reason for the president to act.

You can see the results of all of Trump’s executive order deadlines at our deadline tracker.

Top photo: Firefighter Tyler Behrends treats a women suspected of overdosing on heroin on July 14, 2017, in Rockford, Ill.

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Don’t buy coke, meth, heroin, or pills at all. Don’t buy weed (and weed products), unless you positively know the source, including the entire supply chain. Until dope is legalized or at least decriminalized, you are supporting the worst of the worse from criminal cartels to the criminal pharmaceutical industry.

Nothing cool about getting high when other people are paying the high and often ultimate price for your pleasure. Secondly, the more prolific the distribution of the cartel, and other criminal organization’s products, the more death, destruction and mayhem is spread into all areas, but most importantly the areas that have already been devastated.

We can all agree that we are fighting uphill battle against the man. No need to commit suicide by supporting murderers, rapists, human traffickers, kidnappers, and opiate, opioid and counterfeiter pharmacists who terrorize the US, Mexico, Central America, Eastern Europe, Central and South West Asia, and much of Africa.

And they are destroying the lives of this and future generations in the inner cities and burned out industrial towns in America. All this to get you high. Abstain from evil, get high on a known supply, and support your local grower, producer and distributor.

BUT – we the people do not pay attention.
The administration of Ronald Reagan / George H.W. Bush started the drug trade . .
The Iran Contra connections of the C.I.A. –
bringing cocaine from Central America (contras)
Converted to crack and sold in L.A.
To fund the arms for hostages (that was outlawed by the Congress…..
Viet Nam – Cambodia……then Afghanistan / Iraq the golden triangle…..you can run it?.? but not stop it?? Why don’t I believe that

Hate to have to preface with a disclaimer, but I hat e Trump. There, I said it. Now onto the real comment.

Trump has been president for EIGHT MONTHS! Obama had EIGHT YEARS!

His decision (Buck stops with the President) to reschedule hydrocodone to Schedule 2 only added fuel to fire, driving hopheads to heroin and fentanyl. Open borders allow Mexican fentanyl and heroin to rapidly cross the border. Refusing to de-schedule marijuana adds to the epidemic. This epidemic was surging the day Obama got elected. HE DID NOTHING.

This constant TRUMP IS THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL refrain is beyond boring. It is dangerous. Obamacare, in and of itself, gives doctors incentives to addict people and the entire bill is a full employment act for Big Pharma and the insurance lobby.

Stop blaming Trump. Secure the damn border, end the war on drugs, incentivize treatment and for God’s sake legalize Marijuana.

By now it is certain that Trump and his fellow Republican oligarchs are only interested in enriching themselves and destroying democracy. Do not expect this evil crew to do anything helpful to humanity.

thank you writing about this David
my younger brother passed away from an opiod overdose at age 22
companies like Purdue Pharma are not practitioners of medicine. they are drug dealers. that’s all they are. drug dealers who hide behind white lab coats
they have no interest in treating the cause of someone’s pain, only in exploiting their pain for profit. the pills are designed to be addictive. that’s the point. if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be nearly as profitable
thank you again for the article

The cost of Evzio, an naloxone auto-injector similar to the EpiPen, rose from $690 in 2014 to $4,500 today.

Drugs are US both legal and illegal. Crony Capitalist run the pharmaceutical monopolies and peripherally profit from the money laundering and drug money investment, prisons for profit and militarization of law enforcement and military used to fight drug wars. The line between legal and illegal drugs is in flux and patients, addicts or both are not the concern of either drug business. Even life saving cancer drugs are priced at all the market (double entendre) can bear; profits outweigh either outcomes or efficacy. We have lost the Republic. The current Empire that profits from the drug empires will not change what is perfect from the top down. “Money Is Speech” “Corporations Are People” out does any trick of language in “1984.” These slogans leave a lesser life for most Americans and associated policies generate much hatred and condemnation abroad. WE must restore our Republic and true competitive market price capitalism. Government structured monopolies are killing real America enterprise and stewardship of a better future.

Who is responsible for this addiction….the President or the drug users ?
No solution in sight as Shadowgovernment profits handily from the opioid crisis and it is an ideal way of weakening and manipulating the minds of the US citizens.

I think the mention of the EpiPen with Naloxone was a bit unnecessary to point out the inflated price.
But whatever it takes to get the price of Naloxone down…make it a govt competition like flu vaccines.

This blaming of the “opioid crisis” on Perdue is absurd. All drug makers market their drugs to doctors.
People deserve to have their pain treated and not have doctors’ scared witless to do it.

For those seeking out a high…then why not bring in opium from Afghanistan and people that have a hard time with the pain of existence could smoke it.

There is something just crazy about a problem becoming a crisis the more it affects the lighter skinned members of society.

Who is really hooked are states that loved the income from the tobacco industry lawsuits and want more.
Also, why are there so few PSA’s on addiction.
My preference is everyone has hope for a better future without the fog of drugs, the same thing I hoped for others during the crack epidemic and heroin epidemic, when the only people to sue were our own government, but those people were expendable …right?

And what’s with this deadline watch, it is so silly and reminiscent of the impeachment watch.

“People deserve to have their pain treated and not have doctors’ scared witless to do it.”

People judge pain differently. Emergency room patient is asked about pain level 1 minimum 10 maximum. Patient replies 10 as he continues to text. Max pain #10 is gut-shoot screaming or black out pain. This patient was or was begging to become an addict. There are many in the legal and illegal drug trade happy to oblige him. Drugs are both a blessing and a curse and many would profit from both pain and/or despair. Choose wisely the cost of drug use can be much more than just the money.

I went through this after a skiing accident.
I was in wicked pain for some time. Fortunately, I had a good doctor that prescribed enough to break the pain to a tolerable level. This eventually got
me more functional, through extensive therapy and I’m off the meds and in great shape. Not that I don’t get back pain, but not to the point I’d want or need to medicate it, as I know it will pass.
I think that some people that have pain live in fear of not having enough for their pain and that creates a fear and craving to have more.
I should qualify this by saying, the perfect dose relieved my pain, the smallest bit more, felt awful to me, and may have been due to what was in my stomach. Who knows, but I’m very grateful that I had a good experience and even more grateful that it was in the past and not in today’s environment.

I think there is a witch hunt to hold everyone accountable except the person using the drugs.

Very pleased you are mending and healing from both the physical and physiological elements associated with trauma or disease. Too few physicians treat both elements or even give addiction a second glance. All these elements are connected. Finding “balance” in medicating with your respective situation is key and as you suggest personal. I have found compression socks the most cost effective and a first rate message chair an expense way to beat back and other pain from an active lifetime and illness, shot of whiskey optional.

did the crisis start under Trump administration?
Did TI cover Obama’s failure to handle the opioid crisis? Did House Democrats?
This hysterical partisanship would be is quite hilarious if it weren’t destroying our political system.

You should stop believing what Democrats say. They tell lies all the time.

Yesterday I was watching Lawrence O’Donnell abusing all his staff, and he didn’t even spare his boss, the useless Phil Griffin. It’s what Democrats do in their spare time when they know no one is watching ’em. Abuse, abuse, abuse. Very filthy people.

I wonder why you still write articles based on lies. This website was originally created to disseminate the lies of the great escape artist Edward Snowden, but times have changed, and you must now speak up for the truth. When is that going to happen?

Trump says it’s a national emergency. But he won’t offically declare it a national emergency. Why? Because there’s no way for one giant drug company to make a killing selling a drug that cures opiod addiction. Until then, if you’re an addict, that’s YOUR problem.

Why is the opioid crisis a federal issue? And why should it be dealt with by executive order? The president (not especially this one, but many of his predecessors) have expanded presidential power far too much already, and now you want his to arrogate even more powers to himself? If there is a legitimate federal role in this (which I doubt) it is Congress’ job to come up with a solution, not the president’s. Instead of writing letters to the President these do-nothing incompetents should be drafting legislation. Or better still, simply telling all who will listen that it’s the job of the states to deal with their own problems. You probably don’t want to hear this, but not every problem requires a governmental solution, and of those which do the solution is rarely federal.

Satire Alert: So low wage whites are now suffering economics the Black and Hispanic communities have long endured and adjusted to. This has caused despair but created a marketing opportunity for the pharmaceutical and other cartel drug industry, also for the distillation and brewing industries. For those that cannot drug or drink themselves to death fast enough to avoid crippling despair even the gun industry might pick up some profit, note not anti-gun but anti suicide. This can be viewed as a market adjustment from some privilege to no privilege for any “average” person that will help the positive earning trends of the more upwardly mobile.

David you used to be a good economic writer. Now you rant about an imaginary Trump failure? Do you think anyone as president could solve this crisis within a year? To be honest, if ML King, Ghandi, Buddha or Christ were President — the opium crisis would still exist. If Hillary was President, I might even shoot up. /s

This anti-Trump yellow journalism you have stooped to, along with the Intercept’s support of the destruction of Syria and the Nazi coup in the Ukraine point to the fact that you should write for someone else, not neoliberal billionaires.

I will give you one big positive for Trump he has flushed Bush and Clinton dynasties and is doing a fine job of flushing his own. I like the sound of a toilet flushing, it sounds like victory. The bowel will be clean the path clear for a better candidate 2020, may we all choose wisely. The death of dynasty politics may be Trump’s only great and lasting achievement.

This story would be better titled: “Trump administration routinely misses executive order deadlines” as halfway through suddenly we’re reading about immigration and monuments.

I’m no fan of Trump but since when does the Federal Government get anything of significance done in 6 months? Seems to me if one was truly concerned about the opioid “epidemic” (as a biologist I’m not going to affirm your use of epidemic as a noun) , you would also be doing everything you could to encourage and empower the states and charities to combat the problem as well. Better to have 50+ quickly implemented unique approaches to a problem rather than 1 late behemoth.

If your only solution is to look to Washington DC for every issue of concern, you will be perpetually disappointed. That is unless you have truck loads of cash to buy the influence you need.